Netanyahu condemns ICJ genocide case; Gazans return to wasteland in north
People walk at the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, in southern Israel, January 11, 2024. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
By Mohammed Salem, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Anthony Deutsch
GAZA/THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in Gaza as “hypocrisy and lies”, as some Gazans returned to scenes of total devastation in the north of the enclave where Israeli forces have begun withdrawing.
Three months of Israeli bombardment have laid much of the coastal enclave to waste, killing more than 23,000 people and driving nearly the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes. An Israeli blockade has sharply restricted supplies of food, fuel and medicine, creating what the United Nations describes as a humanitarian catastrophe.
An Israeli soldier ties a rainbow flag with a Star of David on an Israeli armoured personnel carrier (APC), as they re-enter Israel from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, January 11, 2024. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israel says its only means to defend itself is by eradicating Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, whose fighters stormed through Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages. Israel blames Hamas for all subsequent harm to Palestinian civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.
A man lights a candle at the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, in southern Israel, January 11, 2024. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
The case, brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 genocide convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, which mandates all countries to ensure such crimes are never repeated.
“Israel has a genocidal intent against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court in the Hague. “The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state.”
People sit inside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the day of the trial to hear a request for emergency measures by South Africa, who asked the court to order Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza and to desist from what South Africa says are genocidal acts committed against Palestinians during the war with Hamas in Gaza, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 11, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen
South Africa asked the court for a preliminary order to demand Israel stop fighting now, while the court hears the full merits of the case in coming months.
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
In a strongly worded response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the hypocrisy of South Africa screams to the heavens.”
“We are fighting terrorists, we are fighting lies… Today we saw an upside-down world. Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting against genocide,” he said.
Israel’s foreign ministry accused South Africa of “functioning as the legal arm of the Hamas terrorist organisation” in a case built on “false and baseless claims”.
Palestinians said they hoped the court would stop the war. In Rafah, in southern Gaza where the bodies of members of the al-Arjany family killed overnight were laid out outside a morgue, neighbour Khamis Kelab picked up the smallest of three children bundled in shrouds and cradled the dead infant in his arms.
A Palestinian girl who survived an Israeli strike is carried by her father next to the bodies of their relatives who were killed in the strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
“To the ICJ: what is the fault of this baby? What did this girl do? What crime did she commit? Was she a terrorist? Did this baby fire rockets?” he said.
“She was inside a tent, in the freezing cold, she was hit by a strike, this baby is just a few days old, you people.”
The case reveals stark international polarisation. Several Western countries joined Washington in calling genocide accusations against Israel unjustified, not least given the ruthlessness of the Hamas attacks that precipitated the war.
But some developing states, including heavyweight Brazil, backed South Africa, whose President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country was driven to bring the case by “the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza” and South Africa’s own apartheid history.
SCORCHED RUINS
Since the New Year, Israel has announced a new phase in the war, to begin drawing down forces in the northern half of the Gaza Strip where its offensive began. Even so, fighting has only intensified in southern areas.
The relative quiet in the north has let residents begin trickling back into obliterated cities, finding a moonscape often with scant trace of where homes once stood.
Yousef Fares, a freelance journalist, filmed himself walking through a wasteland surrounded by scorched ruins that was once a part of Gaza City, home to nearly a million people. A few civilians passed by, some wobbling on bicycles over a track across the mud.
A woman reacts during an interfaith prayer service in Bo-Kaap for the success of the South African Government’s genocide case, which accuses Israel of genocide in the Gaza war, at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
“All the houses you see are destroyed, completely or partially,” he said.
“We are now at the Tuffah old cemetery, which is over 100 years old. All those graves were exhumed, they were run over by the Israeli bulldozers and tanks. People are coming from various areas of Gaza City to search for the bodies of their sons.”
While Washington has backed Israel’s military campaign as justified by its right to self-defence, it has also called on its ally to scale the war back, do more to protect civilians, and maintain the hope of a future independent Palestinian state.
This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region, meeting Israeli and Palestinian officials and leaders of neighbouring Arab States, defending Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas but pushing for it to work with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which recognises Israel.
A woman holds a placard during an interfaith prayer service in Bo-Kaap for the success of the South African Government’s genocide case, which accuses Israel of genocide in the Gaza war, at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, in Cape Town, South Africa, January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
Offering a pathway to a Palestinian state is the best way to stabilize the wider region and isolate Iran and its proxies, he said while on a visit to Egypt.
He was also briefed on progress as Egypt along with Qatar tries to mediate between Hamas and Israel to broker a ceasefire and secure the release of more than 130 Israeli hostages still being held in the Palestinian enclave, according to Israeli tallies.
Relatives of the hostages stood by the Gaza fence on Thursday, taking turns to shout messages of love and support into a microphone in the hope that the captives would hear them.
“Omer, can you hear us? ” shouted Orna Neutra, mother of 22-year-old hostage Omer Neutra.
“We’re here. We’re really close to you. We’re fighting for you every single day,” she shouted, her voice breaking with emotion. She was holding a placard with a picture of her son.
(Reporting by Mohammed Salem in Rafah, Gaza; Nidal al-Mughrabi in Qatar; Dan Williams and Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem; Anthony Deutsch in the HagueWriting by Peter Graff and Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Sharon Singleton)